Add Outlook home to yesterday's drive-by shootings

Israel Manzo tells the Sunnyside City Council he plays basketball at the Sunnyside Community Center. He said the activity provides him a sense of being "like a big brother to the younger kids there."

Violence that began in Sunnyside ended in Outlook yesterday morning when a house on First Avenue was shot at more than a dozen times.

The violence started in the early morning hours of Monday when a house in the 1100 block of Tacoma Avenue in Sunnyside was shot at. In this incident a 16-year-old girl was shot twice in the back while laying in bed.

Shortly after this incident another house in Sunnyside, this one located in the 700 block of Bagley Drive, was also shot up.

The violence cumulated around 4:15 a.m. with the First Avenue house in Outlook being shot at. Police say the residence is known to have gang activity. Seven people were reportedly sleeping at the time and several people narrowly missed being struck by bullets, including children as young as 2-years-old. Ammunition found at the crime scene in Outlook indicated three firearms of different caliber were likely involved.

While law enforcement officers from multiple jurisdictions went into the area, a Yakima County Sheriff's deputy came across a vehicle matching the suspect vehicle description just outside the city limits of Zillah. The deputy stopped the vehicle and four males with known gang ties were in the vehicle and detained although no firearms were found.

Deputies went back to the area where the suspect vehicle was first spotted to retrace the travel route. About 100 yards along the travel route police found three firearms alongside the road. Police believe the recovered weapons indicate the firearms were tossed from a moving vehicle travelling in the same area and direction as that of the suspect vehicle when first spotted by the deputy.

The firearms include a SKS assault rifle with mounted bayonet, a scoped .22 caliber rifle and a .40 caliber semiautomatic handgun. A magazine police believe belongs with the SKS was found at the drive-by shooting scene in Outlook. Two of these firearms were later found to have been reported stolen in recent years. Police will examine the weapons for possible ties to previous drive-by shootings in the area.

Police say the suspects have extensive gang ties and criminal histories and were wearing gang colors at the time of their arrest.

Arrested were a 32-year-old Granger man, a 28-year-old Grandview man, a 20-year-old Granger man and an 18-year-old man reportedly from the Spokane area.

All four suspects have been booked into Yakima County Jail on seven counts of assault one, drive-by shooting. The older three have been booked into jail for being felons in possession of a firearm. Records indicate the 32-year-old has eight previous felony convictions while the 28 and 20-year-olds have three felony convictions each.

Also since yesterday in the Lower Yakima Valley, deputies have investigated one theft. The incident was reported from the 1300 block of North Outlook Road at 10:39 a.m. No details were available on what was taken.

Also since yesterday deputies have dealt with one abandoned vehicle, one report of domestic violence, two suspicious people or situations, one wanted person, one report of illegal burning, one report of found property and one report of malicious mischief.